Chobits : A Child's Secret
by EclairTG
Summary: Prequel and Sequel to Chobits Anime mostly...
1. The Begining of Chobits

A Child's Secret...

Mrs. Hibiya... I've been meaning to ask you about this for some time, but never really knew how to begin...

Let me guess Hideki, you want to know more of the story behind Chii and Freya.

Well, yeah. I kinda gathered that the whole thing was a bit painful for you and your husband, so I kinda decided to pretend it wasnt there, but with Chii accepting my proposal, I kinda figured now was the time if ever...

...Well, I guess you're right, as you are "The one only for Chii."

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It all began long ago...

We were still recently wed, and had decided it was time to consider adding to out family, his company was quite successful, I had just won 3 awards in the last year for some of my programming in Persecom Personification Procedures. We tried for some time, only to end up with 2 early aborts for our efforts of nearly 5 years. Tests later showed that the chances of us having a live birth were so low that we could try every day for over a millenia and still not have any chance of success... It disappointed him greatly, but it devastated me beyond reason.

I would spend long hours at night just crying, and it was affecting our marriage deeply, until an idle comment changed everything...

_Sweetheart, you have to get over this sometime, if we can't have children naturally, we can always adopt._

_It's just not the same... I doubt you can truly understand the bond that is there between a mother and a child that she gave birth to herself..._

_There has to be some way to give you what you want so badly... The world NEEDS your genious, you can code in a week, better routines than most people could come up with after a years worth of coding and debugging, not to mention your code rarely needs to be debugged more than a few times._

_I would give up all that "skill" if only I could give birth to one child..._

_My god... Its so damned obvious now... You CAN give birth to a child, in a PERSECOM! You've been working on some of the "learning" procedures already, why not push it a bit further, and have the persecom build nearly its entire system from the ground up, through LEARNING!_

_WHAT? Thats impossible..._

_Not really... and if anyone could do it, you could..._

_You have to be kidding... That would require immensely powerful processing and storage, well beyond anything currently being used. The cost of it would be astronomical!_

_For you my dear, anything..._

And so I began... I quicky finished up the other two projects I had been working on and dove straight into this one. I spent weeks just working on and perfecting a single procedure. My husband, on the other hand, was working on the "physical form" in which our progeny would be placed... He worked to make the basic one adrogynous, as if this worked, he hoped to "have a son" as well as letting me have a daughter.

Finally, after 7 months, we were ready to test it out. By his request, we formatted a "male matrix" and downloaded it into the form we would call Phaal. (alPha) He worked out relatively well, but his movements never really manged to emulate a humans very well, and he accidentally damaged himself beyond repair while trying to emulate how his "father" caught a ball.

We both spent many months considering much more of what humans do in their daily life. 8 months later, Tabe (beTa) was ready, again it was a male form. Unfortunately, I had reworked the emulation protocols with much more saftey checks, to prevent a repeat of our first "failure". The emotion emulation was working quite well, until it sort of "overloaded". My husband had always hoped to have a son to do all the "male bonding" activities with, and unfortunately, the safety checks saw many of the requests as "dangers", and eventually Tabe became to afraid of "his fathers" requests to play catch, wrestle, and the such. It was with a sad heart that we had to wipe him.

Finally I managed to convince him to do a female model, as that would be less likely to have any "damage" done to it, and it was truthfully "my turn" to have a greater part of one of my "children's" teaching. He agreed and so we started again.

This time I went into great detail with the emotional end, as well as putting much time with the "grace" protocol, as females have their grace "judged" much more than with males. Additionally, there had been astounding advancements in persecom technology, and "adult" persecoms were begining to come to the market as well, so the levels I was able to put in the senses department was much more than before. In all, we spent well over a year on this latest model, her physical form could have been done in about 3 or 4 months, but I kept at him to give it his all.

Finally, a week before our 10th aniversary, we had her ready. We broke our previous naming conventions, as none of the next few really fit the perfection we had managed this time. I had actually spent a few weeks "training" her in VR, hoping to cut down on her initiation period, and preventing any damage to the form she would have (Vanity, thy name is woman giggle )

When she was started up, within 10 minutes, she was able to call us mama, and papa, and even give us a hug. We were ecstatic, we had our child...

Unfortunately, he was called away on a business matter that would take much of his time over the next few weeks, so he didnt get much time in first few weeks, but that meant more for me, I was in heaven!

I had forgotten that I had put in a web link in her procedures, so she might learn new words on her own, from a few safe areas of course, at least at the beginning. When she asked me about children, and parents, I explained it, though it was her next question that floored me "Mommy, when will I get a sister?"

I told her I would have to ask "daddy" about that, I called him up, and explained what had happened. He suprised me as well, by telling me he had asked one of his friends in one of his companies to start sending him the parts for another "Chobit," which he had decided to mean "Little Butterfly."

Three weeks later, we had our second child. Since he had named Freya, I named this one Elda.

Within a month, the two were nearly inseperable, but Freya had acquired a great love of flowers, and so had decided to help out in the garden I kept

_Wait, why didnt you have a garden outside of our building?_

_I tried, but it reminded me too much of Freya, and once you know the whole story you will understand..._

She was amazing in how well she could keep the garden, where I had taken care of lots of simple flowers and trees before, she helped me set up amazingly beautiful and intricate arrangements of flowers, trees, bushes, everything. I loved her so much more for it. She had turned such a simple hobby into something closer to interaction with divinity itself. There were times I almost couldnt look at her working the garden without tearing up in joy.

Elda on the other hand, became fascinated with books and humanity (in other words, the "human" condition, emotions, things we do, and such), she did seem to concentrate rather heavily on the ideas of friendship, and love.

They both loved games, often draging me into them, and to my utter amazement, even their father. Before this, he had shown only minimal intrest in all but a few "games", saying that he either didnt have the time for them, or that they were "too childish".

Then came that fateful day when someone saw Freya walking back into the house after working on the front garden.

_Hey, HEY, you there!_

_... Yes?_

_Hey, youre a persecom!_

_And?_

_Woah, I didnt know persecoms could manage an entire garden like that!_

_I do the back and private gardens as well..._

_Wow... I gotta see if I can get my mom to get a persecom like you..._

_I doubt she can..._

_What? Dont think we are rich enough to buy one?_

_No, its just there aren't any others like me, well, besides Elda..._

_Oh my god... a Custom built persecom! WOW! Who made you?_

_My mother and father of course._

_Mother? Father? What the hell? You're a persecom, you can't have parents! Mutters Gawd, some people are really sick..._

_Hey, don't call my parents sick!_

_For the last time, they AREN'T your parents, you CAN'T HAVE PARENTS!_

_GO AWAY, I HATE YOU!_

She ran back in the house in tears...

We ended up having a rather "akward" discussion later that night.

_Um... Uhh... Miss?_

_Freya... whats wrong, you know you can call me mom..._

_How can you be my mom? Persecoms don't have parents... Do they?_

_Oh my, thats a hard question to answer... Why do you ask?_

_This girl, she talked to me from the gate, she, she, she said I can't have parents, cause I'm a persecom..._

She broke down into tears at that and I ran in to hug her

_Sweetheart, thats not true... Well, not entirely at least..._

_You aren't a NORMAL persecom, you're "special" in that you were made so you could be much more "human" than any other persecom to date. Not to mention almost everything you know wasn't "entered" into your memory manually, like every other persecom. WE, your parents, TAUGHT you everything, just like any other parent teaches their children. That makes us different, and special..._

_So, she was lying?_

_Not exactly, she just didn't understand what we have together._

_Oh, so there's more for us to learn?_ giggles

_Thats right sweetie... That's life for ya._

Unfortunately, that young girl told her parents about Freya that very night... Her parents were one of a group who were quite against any kind of persecom that was anything but a "walking computer", and truthfully, weren't very happy with them having anything close to a human form either. They contacted more of their group and decided to have a protest outside our gate the very next day.

When Freya went out to tend to her garden the next day, she got a rather frightful suprise...

_There it is!_

_I heard it even eats and uses the toilet._

_I heard they actually tuck it into bed at night._

Suffice to say, the rumors had run fast and fierce, and many were quite nasty and innappropriate...

Then someone has the nerve to throw a stone through the gate...

_Ow! Hey, what are you doing?_

_What the hell, it can actually feel?_

_Its a monster! Kill it!_

_Ow! Ow! Stop it!_

They pelted small stones at her as she tried to cover her face with her tools.

Then someone hurled a brick...

The scream that came out startled the crowd, and eventually had several of them on their knees, covering their ears in pain... For since she wasn't human, her limits in how loud she could scream were much higher, both in decibels, and frequency.

When I heard that scream, it sent chills through me, I dropped what I had been doing and RAN, tripping several times on the way. I met Elda as I came into the main hall. She was terrified.

_Mommy, whats wrong? Whats that horrible noise? Why is Freya hurting?_

_Stay here, DO NOT MOVE, ok?_

_Ok mommy..._

As I came out the front doors, my heart practically stopped, one of my children was hurt, and bad, and the noise was horrible indeed...

_FREYA!_

She quieted down as I ran to her, turned around and ran to me, fighting the tears and sobs.

_Mommy, mommy, why are they doing this to me?_

As I looked her over, the crowd was still milling outside. She had several places where the rocks had hurt her, but the brick had caused quite an injury in her right side. I was horified to think what she had been put through.

_How could you, HOW COULD YOU BASTARDS DO THIS TO HER? She's only a child!_

_SHE'S A FREAK!_

_It's not even a SHE, it's an IT!_

_What right do you have to call a computer your child? You're a SICK WOMAN!_

The insults and rage continued as I helped Freya to the door. When Elda saw her sister, she was instantly very worried.

_Mommy, what happened to her?_

_Those bastards had the gall to try to hurt my girl, just because shes different..._

_They tried to hurt Freya?_

_They didn't try, they did, we need to get her into the repair area fast. We need to find out if anything critical was hit..._

That was the first time I saw her go into "protective mode" (The whole starting to glow thing)

_HOW DARE THEY HURT MY SISTER!_

Within a few moments I heard a few screams from outside, and as I went outside to find out what the problem was, it became quite obvious. More than half the crowd was either on their knees or lying on the ground, and anyone who was trying to help them got a rather nasty shock. Elda was using her wireless connection to hack into any device anyone in the mob had on them, and shorting them out, causing the person carrying it to be shocked as well. I didn't even want to think about the people who had artificial organs and other electronic devices implanted...

_Elda, NO, you must stop it! NOW!_

_-Why? They hurt my sister. I'm just giving them what they gave her...-_

_You can't! Thats not your purpose... Its not your right to judge someone..._

_-They will pay for what they have done?-_

_Yes, I promise you, they WILL pay, just stop, PLEASE!_

With that, she calmed down, and the screams quieted down, then the yells began anew. The insults were much nastier now, and it sounded like they were trying to break down the gates...

I hurried back inside, locked the gates and doors, and called security. I also called the police, as this was more than just a burglar, and our security could only handle so much...

Thankfully, the police arrived less than a minute after someone used a car to ram through the gates and only 5 or so of our guards were hurt, and only one with anything truly serious, when he was hit by the car as it came crashing through.

The next few weeks were a horrible ordeal. Quite a bit of the money was used to pay for injuries, and settlements, many of which stipulated that the "freak" was scrapped after "its" memory was wiped. Thankfully, no one knew about Elda. So she was never mentioned in anything.

Telling Elda that her sister had effectively been sentenced to death due to her behavior was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.

_Don't worry mother, I will always protect my sister..._

Later that night, when I went in to check on her, she was just, gone... The mob had gotten their wish...

When I went to talk to Elda, she said something peculiar

_Don't worry about Freya mommy, she's safe with me..._

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Continued later...


	2. Aftermath of Freya

Aftermath of Freya 

The next day, before the "disposal" was scheduled, I decided to scan of Freya, to try and determine what exactly had happened. The results were staggering, to say the least. Physically, she was in good enough shape, considering what had happened. Her memory though, was just not there, everything had be totally wiped. Freya's memory was perfectly clean, as if there had never been anything stored in there at all.

I called in Elda, as I had to know exactly what she had done, as we were required by the case, to report everything we did after that incident that involved Freya.

_Elda sweetheart, did you do something with Freya?_

At this, she showed a little bit of guilt, and apprehension

_Elda?_

_Mommy, Freya is with me!_

_What exactly do you mean?_

Elda glowed for a few seconds, which suprised me, but not as much as how she spoke after.

_Mom, I'm with Elda now, can't you see? She saved me..._

_Freya?_

Giggles _That's right mommy, now they can't hurt me._

_Freya, could you connect to the Examiner? I need to make sure your sister wasn't damaged saving you._

What I saw that day was impossible. Elda had actually managed to merge her personality matrix wit h that of her sister, she had effectively taken everything that was Freya, and placed it in what appeared to be a secondary layer of her memory. She had actually expanded her abilities, to allow her sister to share her form, both physically, and apparently, mentally as well. The programming that was allowing this to happen, was somewhat simple, but, beyond even my brilliance.

_How on earth did you manage this Elda?_

_Well, my mind is pretty much just a big computer, and computers can multi-task, even managing to run multiple Operating Systems at the same time. I figured, isn't everything I am just like a fancy OS? This problem just gave me a reason to work on it a lot harder and faster. But it does work ok, right mommy?_

_It's definitely going to take some time to look through what you have done sweetie, but what I have seen is amazing._

The more I examined, the more I was amazed, until a problem came up about a week later.

_Mommy, Elda won't let me take care of my garden, she says she's afraid..._

_That's understandable dear, she's likely afraid she might be seen outside and have the same thing happen to her, but this time, there would be no one to save her, or you._

_But mommy, my plants are dying..._

_I'm sorry dear, I can't force her to take that big of a risk, even for you..._

She ran to her room in tears, and I could fully understand how she felt, she had put so much effort into taking care of her beautiful garden, and now all she could do was watch it slowly wither as nature took hold of the land.

I decided I would have to have a talk with my husband next time he had some free time from his job.

_Honey?_

_Yes dear?_

_You know what I told you about how Elda saved Freya, right?_

_Yes..._

_Is there any chance that we might be able to create a new form for Freya?_

_I'm sorry dear, but those groups have been watching every purchase and move I make like hawks, I've been harrassed every time I got online, and I've even gone through 3 secretaries in the last 3 weeks, due to the excess of calls, emails, and the such, asking for "Dr. Freakenstein" and the like. It nearly destroying my company..._

_We have to do something... Freya is getting terribly depressed, and its tearing at my heart to have to put her through this._

_Have you asked Elda if she might... God, how the hell can I say it... I guess it would be "freeing" Freya._

_I have a feeling that isnt possible, the last I checked, their two matricies were becoming more and more interconnected by the day. And by now, removing Freya might irreperably harm Elda._

_Well, I'll leave them in your hands, you are their mother after all, and know them better than anyone else..._

I avoided it for a while, but one day when I was passing Freya's room, I heard her sobbing, and the feelings just hooked in and would'nt let me go.

_Freya?_

sob _Yes mom?_ sniffle

_This can't go on... It tears me to pieces seeing you like this. sigh As much as it pains me to say it, you have to move on._

_She won't let me mom, we have "talked", but she won't budge from her idea that "I'm leaving her all alone", and any time I try to do anything along those lines, she revokes my access._

_Let me talk to her for a bit, okay?_

_Okay..._

_Elda?_

_I won't let her, how could she even consider leaving me all alone!_

_You would'nt be dear, you would still have me..._

_You're not my sister, you're not like me..._

_She's not like you anymore..._

_Wha?_

_She does'nt want to be here anymore, not like this. She wants to let go, and you're holding her here. What happened to the kind, caring, and understanding Elda I knew?_

_But why mommy, why does it have to hurt so much... Why can't she just be happy to be with me?_

_This is a part of life, one of the worst, but a part none the less..._

_Talk with her again, but be more open, be more like the Elda I remember._

Elda spent a little over a week in her room, alone. I was getting a little worried when one morning I awoke to the smell of breakfast cooking. This suprised me a little, as I usually called the cook when I was ready for breakfast, he would make what I wanted, and we would have a friendly chat while he was cooking, and while we were eating.

_Freya?_

_No mommy, its me_ giggle

_Elda? Since when were you interested in cooking?_

_Freya helped me a bit, but its not too hard._

_I see she told you what were my favorites as well..._

_Yeah, my first suggestion was definitely not to your tastes... So she suggested this._

_Wait... You worked things out? But, I thought she did'nt want to keep things as they are..._

_They won't be, they will change, alot..._

_She decided that she doesnt want to have to interact with, or have anything of the outside world to remind her of what she lost. I suggested something she really liked though, DREAMS._

_But... You can't dream, dreams come when you sleep?_

_What about daydreams, and your subconcious..._

_Wow, you really have been looking into this pretty deeply..._

_We will both be able to live in our own ways, just in "different realms"..._

_But, that does'nt seem quite fair to Freya..._

_These won't be ordinary "dreams" mother, we worked long and hard to get the SubCon Proccessor working just right... Its not perfect, but its amazing. Even I can't tell the difference._

_SubCon Proccessor?_

_Don't worry, we were careful, and it was'nt exactly "Persecom" types of parts we used._

_Would it be ok if I took a look and checked up on your work after the meal?_

_Of course!_

We talked on about that and had our meal, which was amazing.

When I got to look over their work, I almost fainted out of astonishment, the amount of data that had been entered was nearly triple the size of their combined personality matricies, and the procedures were immensely complex. In its entirety, what they had done in a week, was more than I had done in the last 6 months. I saw some parts of the code that might cause memory problems, due to the amount of data they could take up, but assumed that they had worked some of that out.

_Elda, Freya, the code you have done is marvelous. And the hardware is even more amazing... Where exactly did you get it anyway?_

_We called daddy, and asked him if he could get us anything that might help a secret project of ours. He explained the whole "being watched" deal, and how he did'nt belive he could get anything useful without drawing too much attention. Then we suggested he "appropriate" a few extras from some of his military based projects, since those are always impossibly huge, and always use more than is really needed, a few items here and there won't be missed._

_Are you sure about that?_

_Yeah, he made sure everything was in orders that were in the 10's of thousands, or more. He knows that some of his employees do the same thing, and nothing ever comes of it, though he makes sure that the money for those is always there, paid by the people who took what they needed. And the few times that anyone ever checked, they never did more than a cursory check, and left it at that when there was nothing truly "missing"._

_I'll have to check with your father about that, but I trust you to be careful enough..._

A few days later, I talked with him about that

_Darling, our daughters mentioned something a few days ago, and I wanted to ask you about it, to make sure they understood correctly, and that you are'nt taking an undue risk for their happiness..._

_Oh? Oh... About the "Diversion" of resources, am I right?_

_Right in one, as always..._

_Don't worry dear, I made well sure they understood me. And as to why I let that go on in my company, its simple, that would go on no matter what I did, and I prefer the more honest varitey, who merely "divert" and then make sure to cover it up with the correct amount of money, or in most cases, a little more... I've found out that in most cases, if they DO check up on it, and find the cash flow in the positive, as long as it won't affect the destination project, they completely ignore it, they know that fact just as I do, and understand it perfectly._

_It just does'nt seem right to introduce those two into that part of business like this..._

_I think you are being just a tad overprotective my dear, this is, as always, another part of life, granted its a bit on the dark side, but... They would learn it sometime, and better that they learn it with our guidance._


End file.
